Children's Poverty Seen Rising
Following Welfare Act of 1996

WASHINGTON -- The number of children of single mothers living in extreme poverty jumped in the first year after the 1996 welfare-to-work act, a study shows.

According to an analysis of U.S. Census data by the Children's Defense Fund, the number of children living below half the federal poverty line rose 374,000, or 26%, to 1.8 million in 1997, compared with about 1.5 million in 1996. It also represents the reversal of what had been a...